‘…I know, I know,’ I interrupted the officer’s words immediately.

I instantly stood up and intended to leave form there.

An hour later, I was walking down the road while looking at my wife’s marriage invitation card. I got surprised when I saw that it was dated ‘2013’, as it was 2011 according to me. And so, I stopped a lady who was walking by my side:

‘Excuse me, Ma’am…’

‘Yes,’ she replied.

‘Look, this invitation card is dated foe the year 2013…’

‘Yeah, I can see that so?’

‘So?’ I asked her while looking at her and feeling very strange, ‘Isn’t 2011 the current year?’

‘What? Are you insane?’ she said giving a weird look to me.

She walked away and I kept on looking at her.

‘Now, what sort of game is this? I’m being taken two years forward just like that…’

I started running back to my hotel as fast as I could, realising that staying out of the room can cause more and more confusions and difficulties for me at the moment. I tore the invitation card into pieces.

On the way back, someone just stopped me from my left side, by holding my left hand. I knew he was also someone planned for this entire activity, so I thought of asking him the question regarding the current year,

‘It’s 2013 right?’ I asked, hoping that he would reply with a yes.

‘No, what the hell are you saying? It’s 2011!!’ he laughed, ‘Why did you ask this from me?’

I remained silent, realising that he might not be someone planned for this. He took out his pistol and said:

‘Give me whatever you have?’

‘Oh, so you are planned?’ I said realising him to be a planned gangster, ‘Look, you may check my pockets, I don’t have enough money than you must be demanding right now.’

He angrily shot me on my leg and ran away. I was badly injured and fell down instantly, and cried out aloud feeling a terrific pain in my leg. I just tore the sleeve of my shirt’s left arm and tied it across the wound tightly to prevent any more blood loss form my body. And then, I decided to go back to my hotel.

By seven o clock in the evening, I reached the hotel and went back to my room. As I entered inside, I saw a note on my bed. Something was written in a few words but large handwriting: ‘YOUR SON JERRY HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!’

I badly got upset and tore the paper weeping out loud. I didn’t get too much shocked at that time, because I was actually expecting this to happen.

Retrograde Amnesia

By nine o’ clock, I was roaming around in my room thinking about all the events and problems that took place. So, I finally decided to kill myself with my knife that I used to carry with myself.

I took out that large knife from my suitcase, and prepared to commit this suicide. But as I took it near to my throat, I heard a familiar voice from behind:

‘Graham, stop! You’re getting your answers so don’t kill yourself right now!’

As I turned around, I saw Clark standing close to the door of my room’s entrance. I didn’t believe my eyes, as I knew this was either a dream or a hallucination.

‘You don’t seem to be surprised…’

‘You’re not real,’ I replied.

‘Oh, really?’

My room’s door knocked, from Clark’s behind. He turned and opened the gate. It was the room service. The waiter gave him a cup of coffee and asked for his signature. Everything was happening in front of my eyes but I was surprised that how come that waiter could see the dead man, who was my hallucination.

Clark shut the door and kept the cup of coffee aside. I angrily said to him:

‘Hey! You’re not alive, you were dead…’

‘Do you think that I’m dead?

‘How did you survive?’ I asked realising he was actually alive. ‘I saw Danny stabbing you.’

‘No, you didn’t see that, you heard me screaming which wasn’t real. Anyways, I’m here to tell you about the person on whose order all these things are happening with you.’

Then, I heard footsteps approaching towards me from behind. As I turned around I saw Danny. I got a little surprised and asked Clark:

‘Hold on for a minute, is he that person who is behind my every trouble? Mr. N.3.’

‘No, but…’

‘Just a second, will you guys tell me how did Clark survive?’

‘Allow me to tell you this,’ Danny said to me, ‘whatever you witnessed that day on my house… Petunia tied up, Clark getting murdered, everything. It was all a planned act. You can call it a drama.’

‘Oh, God!’ I felt astonished, ‘so, does this mean that day before yesterday whatever happened between all of us in that room was planned by both of you?’

‘Yes exactly,’ Danny smiled.

‘And Petunia? Anyways, look, both of you were my friends…who has made you my enemies? On whose order are you doing this with me?’

‘Should we tell him?’ Danny asked Clark.

‘Allow me, I’ll tell him,’ Clark said gently.

A feeling of thrill passed in my nerves, as I was about to know someone who was the answer of my every question.

‘Okay Graham, I’ll tell you everything,’ Clark said being honest, ‘but first I want you to believe that we’ll tell you no lies today. Everything we’ll speak, is going to be a truth, I promise.’

‘Okay, it depends on type of fact you’ll tell me. Who’s my culprit?’

‘It’s YOU,’ Clark replied, ‘behind all these activities, the person who had ordered this stuff was only you Graham Norton.’

‘Look Clark,’ I claimed getting annoyed, ‘I’ve had enough of this shit, tell me the truth or get out.’

‘I knew you’d say that but first tell me in which year are we living…’

‘According to me it’s 2011, but some idiots like yourself are saying that it’s 2013.’

‘Did you go to the embassy?’ Clark asked.

‘Yes and…’ I stopped remembering the person whom I met there.

‘What will you do with this? It’s already expired, a year ago,’ I remembered that person’s words.

‘Oh, my God!’ I said realizing maybe I was living in 2013. ‘But then where did 2012 go?’

‘Do you know what is Retrograde Amnesia?’ Clark asked giving me a document of a medical report.

‘Yes, I know what is Amnesia?’ I replied taking the report and seeing it, ‘In this, the patient’s memory is lost after an accident causing head injury.’

‘Good, but in Retrograde Amnesia, a person’s memory is lost only for a specific time period. You head an accident in 2011, and then another injury to your head was done in 2013. The second injury caused you this Retrograde Amnesia due to which your memory went back to the accident of 2011’

‘Oh, no!’ I said getting surprised, ‘so that day when I woke up and found myself in bandages…’

‘…I lied to you about the car accident that day. The car accident took place in 2011.’

‘Oh, I see!’ I said realising the truth, ‘then what happened in 2012 and later months of 2011… and the earlier ones of 2013!’

‘That’s the most interesting part to know,’ Clark replied giving an expression of excitement.

My Pride proved to be an Answer

Seeing him excited to give me the answers, I said to him:

‘I’m listening, go on….’

‘In the beginning of 2012, you joined a gang lead by Dean. Everyone in your gang had a code name. Your code name was N.3. And in that year and first few months of 2013, you and your gang created many difficulties for innocent citizens of Berlin. These were not too harmful, but still intolerable. However, you alone caused many such problems for others which were not crimes but still left a bad impact on them’.

I got badly stunned and sat on my bed.

‘And by the time, Dean cheated you by taking away your agreed sum of money, you changed…Then, gradually you began to realize that you had given great difficulties to innocent people. You were quite guilty of your crimes, due to which you had only one wish left. And that wish was of seeing and suffering all the pain you had given to others. You wanted all those troubles to come before you, but you knew this couldn’t happen. Therefore, you committed a suicide by running in mid of road and getting crashed by a car.’

‘Wait a minute,’ I said feeling ridiculous, ‘this is bullshit, I’m not going to believe this that I changed from a criminal to a nice guy who wants to suffer the difficulties to feel a relief from guilt.’

‘I know, you won’t believe my words, but you will believe your pride’ Clark replied gently.

‘Pride?’ I asked.

‘What are you proud of?’

‘My handwriting and signature, what else?’

‘Then, I believe you wrote this,’ he said taking out a piece of paper and giving it to me.

As I saw the paper, I saw a note written in my handwriting. I didn’t remember at all when I wrote this, but I realised that I must have written this at the time of my lost memory’s period. I read that note in my heart:

Today, I’m committing suicide because I have done a great harm to normal citizens just for sake of little money. I hate myself because these problems cannot be replaced. My last wish was to suffer all this torment and pain caused to others, but that’s not possible. Therefore I’m committing a suicide’.

After I finished reading the letter, I slowly began to realize that Clark was not telling any lies.

‘Listen Graham,’ Danny said, ‘It’s in your handwriting, you know we can’t make a fake note by copying your handwriting.’

‘Yes, I agree,’ I replied, ‘but let me get this straight, I committed suicide but I survived. And then after suffering Amnesia, Clark and you planned all these difficulties for me, so my last wish could be fulfilled, am I right?’

‘Exactly!’ Clark replied. ‘But I need to show you another note as well which you wrote earlier than this.’

He gave me another note written in my handwriting and again unknown to me. It was written in bullet points and was entitled ‘My Last Wish’. I read its first line:

‘In the beginning of 2012, I joined Dean’s gang and gave these sort of difficulties to innocent people.’

‘Okay, now read the first point,’ Clark said.

‘I busted people’s cars by bursting their tires, breaking glasses and mirrors, and also by stealing the petrol.’

‘Yes and did that happen with you?’ Danny asked.

‘Oh, yes exactly,’ I replied realizing how my car was destroyed every day. ‘Next point says: ‘I also blasted other’s cars in bomb explosions.’

Then I remembered yesterday’s event when my car was blasted.

‘I threw tea and black coffee on other’s shirts or clothes.’

‘Do you get it?’ Clark asked, ‘This also happened with you when the girls called you that day.’

I remembered how this happened with me, and then I read the next point:

‘I expelled many students and fired staff from my school when I was a principal.’

‘I think you have the answer for it,’ Clark smiled.

‘Oh yes, I got fired from my job that day,’ I said remembering the incident.

‘I used to keep affairs with women even though I was married, this act was intolerable for Linda… what’s the answer for this?’

‘Alex!’ he replied, ‘He had an affair with your wife…’

‘I see,’ I replied understanding the situation, ‘so does this mean that that marriage card was a fake invitation?’

‘We’ll tell you that afterwards,’ Danny said to me, ‘there is a little twist in this story.’

‘The next point says: I played with feelings of women who were in love with me.’

‘The answer for this one is Petunia,’ Clark claimed.

‘Petunia?’ I asked getting a little surprised, ‘Was she also a setup?’

‘Yes, all the way long she was also just playing with you, so you can realize how it feels when someone gets hurt in love.’

‘Oh boy,’ I said continuing the note, ‘While I was with Dean,

I also stole over twenty people’s wallet!!’

to be continued...